A search for long-lived particles that stop in the CMS detector and decay to muons Alimena, Juliette creator 2016 33, 305 p. born digital Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2016) Cutts, David Director Narain, Meenakshi Reader Fan, JiJi Reader Brown University. Physics sponsor theses A search for long-lived particles that are produced in proton-proton collisions at the CERN LHC, come to rest in the CMS detector, and decay to muons is presented. The decays of the stopped particles could be observed during the intervals between LHC beam crossings, at times that are well separated from any proton-proton collisions. The analysis uses 19.7 1/fb of 8 TeV data collected by CMS in 2012, during a search interval of 293 hours of trigger livetime. Massive, long-lived particles do not exist in the Standard Model, and so any sign of them would be an indication of new physics. The results are interpreted with a model that predicts a long-lived particle that has a charge of twice the electron charge and that behaves like a lepton. Cross section limits are set for each long-lived particle mass as a function of lifetime, for lifetimes between 100 ns and 10 days. These are the first limits for long-lived stopped particles that decay to muons. particle physics LHC CMS long-lived exotic particles Muons RPB 20160629 engEnglish10.7301/Z0CV4G46In CopyrightCollection is open for research.dissertations